


Seeing Them In My Eyes

by Apag2



Category: The Plot Against America (TV 2020)
Genre: Eventual Happy Ending, Family Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:40:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26963059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apag2/pseuds/Apag2
Summary: Herman watches as his son’s and nephew grow, and realizes they were just like him and his brothers. But that doesn’t mean he’s a failure.
Relationships: Alvin Levin & Herman Levin, Alvin Levin & Sandy Levin & Philip Levin





	Seeing Them In My Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of AU (No Lindbergh or secret axis Plot against America). Just a examination of the Levin family from Herman’s perspective and a better ending the family deserved.

Herman watches Alvin, Sandy and Philip grow everyday. He remembered how it was like for his parents to raise 3 boys in one roof. Russian Immigrants from the Ukraine settling in Newark in the early 1900s. Jack and Monty were everything they at least expected from a child. Herman often times rebelled. The 3rd child had been the most rebellious for being first generation American. Herman of course loved his parents and did everything they asked of him for being the last child. All Herman really wanted to do was be a greater person that everyone could see. Now, almost 40 years old, he wishes he was better. Or better yet he and his brothers were still great together (if Jack was alive) because he watches the boys he raised act just like he and his brothers were as kids.

And he doesn’t know if it’s good, bad or terrible; and that’s the fucking scary part of it all.

He see’s Monty in Sandy. The middle child in his first son. Wanting to rebel as a first generation American and become something greater than what life had to give him. Monty, only 3 years older than him, left the house at 19 to fight in Europe. Spending weeks in the trench or staying under the ground till his body was numb enough. He didn’t blame Monty for the way he became for the last 20 years. He had got himself a beautiful blonde wife and 2 daughters. Became richer than most of their former classmates as a fruit merchant and felt that was good enough. But it wasn’t. Monty didn’t see the way they saw things, but deep down he knew it, and just continued, even after their parents were gone, to not see how things were to others. But he did knew it. Herman knows Sandy is different and wants to be someone great. He does have hope, but is worried if he gets full of himself. A father always knows.

He see’s Jack in Philip. Practically even looks like him! He remembered going through photos a while back after his mother’s funeral and saw Jack young between 7-11. It scared him seeing Philip, his second son (and last) looking like his eldest brother. Jack was 11 when Herman was born. He did knows everything about how Jack was in childhood. He liked to collect stamps as well, as well as caps and pennies. Jack also wanted to be adventurous. See the rest of America. Eventually he settled down with Katherine had a son that he would never raise past 6 years. But before that he got his yongest baby brother off his feet and meet Kathy’s second cousin considered as a sister to her, Elizabeth ‘Bess’ Finkel. At first sight, Herman thought an angel had swoop him up as he looked into her eyes before taking her at the dance floor during Jack’s wedding. That was what he would never forget, proving how much Jack loves him, and pained him to say that in his eulogy for Jack. Same with Katherine. 

But when he see’s Alvin, it’s not his father he see’s in him. or Monty.

It’s him he see’s in Alvin. That’s what the most scariest thing of them all. 

Alvin had been rebellious after his mother’s death and when Herman took him in. Bess was 7 months pregnant with Philip and Sandy was still 5 years old when Alvin came. Alvin was how Herman used to think and be. Screwing around and getting into fights. Being selfish towards his family. Even after his father kicked him out for lying about skipping school and being with the ‘Newark Triad’ when they were recruiting young Jewish boys for their gangs. It took time for him to realize he was selfish and wrong, even if he may had a point about how they were treated. All he wanted was to be better than others. To be great. When he fought with Alvin before he left the house, Herman rembered how he was like to his father, and complete shame overtook him. Herman himself knew Steinham was corrupt and a shame towards them, but he had to have someone for Alvin to be better. He thought Alvin could maybe learn from him, but instead it seems it was the never-ending cycle of disapproval and disappointment. All he wanted to do was treat Alvin like he treated his own children, yet now he let his fear and anger control his parenting of Alvin.

When Herman comes home just thinking of this after another tough year of family drama, he finds the boys wrestling in the living room. It’s thanksgiving weekend, a few days before school starts again so they’re having the time of their lives like they did in the summer. Alvin gives Philip a piggy-back ride while Sandy tries to take them down before falling down himself. Alvin tickles Sandy while Philip goes on top of them both. Herman would usually want them up before Bess come home, but he laughs.

He see’s them like how he, Monty and Jack were. Even in the hard and desperate times, they were still brothers. Family. And no one could take that away from them. No one. Jack might be gone, but he lives in them. Sandy, Philip, and Alvin. No matter how they turn out, Herman knows they’ll always be family together. So seeing him and his brothers in the 3 is no longer scary or upsetting. It may just be a blessing in disguise.

Herman thinks of this before he grabs Philip and playfully wrestles him like how they they use to do when he was 5. The boys finally all playful attack before lying down, laughing without even thinking. Even after Bess comes home with Evelyn, wearing their new beautiful dresses, she just laughs instead of embarrassment to see her husband, son’s and nephew laughing with joy on the floor. Something that reminds them of what’s really was impertinent to them all, family. 

Things still will end in better ways than expected. Herman see’s this when they’re down for a relaxing happy Shabbat diner; Alvin making jokes, Sandy shows his drawings and Philip gets a new stamp collection, and they go to bed happily for the new day.

And life for the Levin’s goes on again.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all liked this one. I know that HBO doesn’t really get a lot of views by today’s standards but this show really got me. The Levin’s were how I pictured in the novel and they were, while not always perfect, a great family of characters I can imagine and I was pretty wrecked by the end of the show. 
> 
> Now with the election over and such, I always like to think in my head cannon that the Levin’s would make amends with Evelyn and Alvin again (considering life returned to normal after the election). I’m sure most writers here can write better stories like that than I could. I’m not saying I expected a ton of stories to be written based off the show, but I think it deserves more for how great the family is. 
> 
> Well, enough of that, feel free to let me know your thoughts and reviews of this.


End file.
